


Replaced / Remembered

by TheWitchBoy



Series: Angst [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics), Superboy (Comics), Teen Titans - All Media Types, Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Actual Research on Soda v Pop based on location, Angst with a Happy Ending, Best Friends, Clark is Conner's Dad - he's not a very good dad, Family Dynamics, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Jason's still dead - but it's okay because we all been knew he'll be back, Kon is lowkey "The Mom Friend", M/M, Mild Language, Soda v Pop, Takes place somewhere in the amorphous space between seasons 2 and 3, They Might Be Dating, Tim Burton Movies, Young Justice universe... vaguely, i still don't know how to tag, seriously, sibling dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:21:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25016917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWitchBoy/pseuds/TheWitchBoy
Summary: A brief moment between the time when the mantle of Robin is given to Damian and the time when Tim adopts the mantle of Red Robin.Kon's there to cut the brooding short.
Relationships: Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent
Series: Angst [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2116992
Comments: 6
Kudos: 92





	Replaced / Remembered

**Author's Note:**

> One of these days, I'll finish season three of YJ. That day is not today, though. So this is part comics, part YJ. Is Bruce around? I dunno. Is Dick Batman? Who knows. Is Superboy dead? Obviously not.
> 
> This started as kind of a vent fic (you may have noticed that I do this pretty frequently with Tim) and ended in fluff.

Tim understood. Really, he did.

Damian needed Robin, in a way the previous Robins never needed Robin. But it still hurt. God, it hurt.

He wasn't sure what he was going to do, yet, so there they were, for the moment. Two Robins. The old model and the new one. Tim and Damian.

And then there was the way everyone welcomed Damian, helped along by the fact that his predecessor hadn't died.  Nightwing was all smiles during the introduction, “This is Robin, my baby brother,” and all hugs and helping Damian to relate to the other young heroes. He smoothed the process for Damian, even though Damian didn't even appreciate it.

They were a bright and welcoming little knot, all of them trying so hard to make Damian feel at home. He turned his nose up at all of them, but they persisted.

Tim remembered his own introduction and it still hurt.  Nightwing hadn’t even been able to look at him, because of what had happened to Jason. Bruce had been gruff and almost unkind. The Team had still been mourning Jason, just as  Nightwing was. It hadn't been a great introduction to the young heroes' world.

Kon walked over to Tim and elbowed him out of his brooding. “He's kind of awful, isn't he?” Kon muttered. 

Tim snorted. “You have no idea.”

Kon hadn’t joined the knot of  welcomers , at all, which was funny. Way back, Kon had been the only one to welcome Tim into the Team. “That bad, huh?”

“Worse.”

Kon laughed, as if Tim had made a joke. It really wasn't a joke, though. Damian hated Tim. The feeling was becoming more and more mutual, the longer it went on.

“Well. He'll never be my Robin,” Kon said. He had that crooked smile in place. It was a newer smile, something that broke through the brooding more completely than his other smirks and smiles.

“I think the Team founders all feel like that,” Tim said.

Kon laughed again. As usual, he knew exactly what Tim meant. “You think Nightwing is my Robin? Are you nuts?”

Tim frowned and looked at Kon from the corner of his eye. “He's not?”

“No. If Nightwing is anyone’s Robin, he's KF's.” Kon and Tim both sobered for a moment, remembering Wally. God.  _ Wally. _ Kon cleared his throat. “No, uh. You're my Robin. You'll always be my Robin.” The grin Kon shot his way was equal parts bright and shy. Almost… nervous.

“Me?” Tim frowned.

“Of course. You've been my Robin since almost the first day. You know? Everyone was snubbing you because of what happened to your predecessor, even though it wasn't your fault. It was like my first year, when Superman… you know. He didn't really accept me at first, and it sucked, because it was like. It wasn't my fault, you know? Jason wasn't your fault, either.”

“I didn't know…” Tim looked at his feet. “I kind of thought I was more of a placeholder than anything else. Especially when the little demon came along.”

“Yeah,” Kon said, softer. “You'll always be my Robin.”

Butterflies suddenly seemed to be congregating in Tim's stomach. “I, uh. I wasn't ready to give up Robin,” he admitted. “And I'm not sure what I'm going to do, now. What mask and codename I'm going to adopt. We can't just have two Robins on the Team.”

“I mean. I guess not. But it doesn't seem fair that you're being forced to give Robin up, like this.”

Tim shrugged, holding in his sigh. “Yeah.”

“I don't think I'd be able to just give up Superboy, just so some mini Clark can have it.”

Tim nodded slowly. He knew that that was a situation that Kon would actually be dealing with, pretty soon. Kon's dark expression told Tim that Kon was already beginning to deal with it, duking it out with Clark, who still hadn’t admitted Kon was. You know. His son. Not his “brother” or whatever.

“Yeah,” Tim just repeated. “I mean, speaking of, what's it like, having a little brother?”

“Underwhelming,” Kon deadpanned.

Tim cracked a smile. “Liked it better when you had minimal contract with him, I take it?”

“Hell yeah.” Kon leaned his head back and groaned. “He's the golden child! Intentionally brought into the world, not half-Luthor, an actual mom, not grown in a test tube? He's the whole package and I can't stand it! Here I am, basically the equivalent of a high school mistake, and then there's the brat! The worst part is, I can't even hate him! He’s the sweetest damn parasite. Ray of fucking sunshine.” Kon threw his hands in the air. “If anyone ever lays a finger on him, I’m going to rip them apart, Rob. Limb from limb.”

Tim laughed. “You poor thing.”

“Sorry, I was trying to make you feel better. Not talk about my issues with Jonathan.” Kon grinned down at Tim, clearly aware that he had helped. Tim was laughing, after all, instead of brooding. “Have you thought about, like, the other thing Jason did, way back?”

Tim sighed. “I don't know, I like the idea of Red Robin, but I'm not sure I want to, like, cling to more of Jason's shadow…”

“Yeah, but. Wasn't Jason kind of like your Robin?”

“Uh, yeah. He was. Look, I talked to him once, maybe twice. But he was… he was so nice to me and he… I don't know. I looked up to 'Wing, sure, but Jason was. Was. I don’t know.”

“Yeah, I get it, I think,” Kon smiled the softest, most stomach-flipping smile. Tim had to look away. “You don't have to explain it.  Jason was your Robin. I think we all have our Robins, and you're mine, as I said. So,” Kon removed his too-soft smile, looking vaguely ahead, in the direction of the new Robin. “Jason was your Robin. You could, like, homage him by taking on his Red Robin persona. I mean, not many people will even remember it, anyway. Right?”

Tim nodded slowly. “Red Robin…” he murmured.

“I mean. You look good in red, too, so maybe the suggestion is a bit self- serving.” Kon returned his smile to Tim, but it was brighter and more mischievous. “Red and black.”

“You mean your colors,” Tim snorted. He could feel his cheeks warming.

“Hell yeah, my colours. My  colours , my Robin.”

Tim laughed. “Kon?”

“Yeah?”

“You're really good at this.”

“At what?”

“Making me feel better.”

Kon shrugged. “I try.  Wanna go train or something? I don’t think the whole whatever,” he motioned toward Nightwing, the new Robin, and the all too welcoming knot of Team members, “is bound to let up anytime soon.”

“I don’t feel like training.”

“Movie n’ pizza?”

Tim hummed. “Yeah, okay. Edward Scissorhands?”

“I was thinking more Classic Disney, but sure. Popcorn?”

“I’ll get the popcorn if you get the pizza,” Tim grinned up at Kon. It actually kind of sucked that Kon was still so much taller than Tim, since Tim had hoped to grow a bit more than he had, but it was also nice? Kon was such a protector type. The “mom friend” according to Di—according to  Nightwing .

And that was it. Damian and the loss of Robin’s mantle was immediately out of Tim’s mind, to be dealt with another time. And the feeling of dull-bladed betrayal was... not gone, exactly. But it was so much more distant.

“Grab Sweeny Todd, too,” Kon said, “You know, in case we finish the movie and want another.”

“Themed, huh? How about Beetlejuice, then?”

Kon scowled at him. “You know I don’t like when you say that.”

“What?” Tim’s grin stretched wide.

“You know what.”

“Beetlejuice?”

Kon clapped his hands over his ears and scowled. It was mostly playful.

“Beetle...juice?” Tim repeated.

“Stop it,” Kon hissed.

“Bee—” Tim stretched it out, to the tune of an intensifying super-scowl. “—s  are disappearing at an alarming rate.”

“Sweeny Todd,” Kon reiterated firmly. He uncovered his ears, though. “Bees are  _ not  _ a today problem. The ‘today problem’ is deciding what movies to watch while gorging ourselves on pizza, popcorn, and pop.”

“I’ll grab the Movie That Must Not Be Named, too. Just in case.” He turned to go, then turned back. “Pop?”

“Soda,” Kon drawled, unamused.

“You turned into a Kansas boy fast,” Tim teased.

“And you’re a city boy, through and through. You can take the bird out of New Jersey, but you can’t take New Jersey out of the bird.”

“I feel really attacked, right now,” Tim laughed. “Clark – sorry –  _ Kal _ __ says soda, now, you know. Looks like the  Metropolis in him has taken over.”

“Ew, take it back.”

“He’s a New Yorker, now!” Tim teased. “Sorry, sorry.  _ Eastern  _ New Yorker. I did some research, New York is like. Split down the middle on soda and pop.”

“Of course you did research.”

“Whatever! Don’t make fun of me. Isn’t there a pizza you should be getting?” Tim waved Kon off. “Meet up in your room, kay? Kay.” And, as per usual, Tim disappeared almost between blinks.

Kon smiled to himself, which Tim could see from his hidey hole before he disappeared entirely from the room. It was a soft, pleased little smile, like he’d achieved exactly what he’d set out to achieve. The butterflies in Tim’s stomach went nuts, again. Damian who? Tim didn’t have any Damian-shaped problems, not after Kon’s intervention.

Tim was loved and valued and  _ Kon’s Robin _ .

Who cared about the rest?

**Author's Note:**

> I'm alive! But this time I'm making no promises about continued posting of content. Do I plan to post more? Yes! Am I going to promise to? Nope! It's always bitten me in the bum, so far, so I'm trying something different.
> 
> In other news: tagging remains a difficulty.
> 
> In other other news: Kon's reaction to "Beetlejuice" is me. Tim making fun of that is also me, though.
> 
> In other x3 news: formatting is still my enemy. ...sorry


End file.
